14 August 2017

Good Day,

And what do you do when two brothers, two GGG-Granduncles marry wives who both have the same name?

That’s right, GGG-Granduncle Laurent Brunhammer (born 2 Aug 1813, Hochstatt) and his younger brother Sébastien Brunhammer (born 8 May 1820, Hochstatt) both married wives named Marie Anne Schwimmer. And both couples decided to have children around the same time.

This is where it becomes confusing, and this is where I must carefully sift through the Birth Registrations to make sure who is who and who belongs to whom.

And it becomes more confusing when their elder brother GGG-Grandfather Joseph Brunhammer has three (3) wives; GGG-Grandmother Catherine (née Ganzer), and step-GGG-Grandmother Marie Anne (née Gugenberger), and step-GGG-Grandmother Sophie (née Berger). And so, there are children also arriving because of two of these marriages.

All I can imagine is the Registrar’s face and comments when a Brunhammer walks through the door of his office to register a new Brunhammer.

Anyway it took me sometime today to determine who is who, and who belongs to who.

First, all three, GGG-Grandfather Joseph and his two brothers GGG-Granduncle Laurent and GGG-Granduncle Sébastien were sons of GGGG-Grandfather Sébastien and Marguerite (née Ruess) Brunhammer. To date and with the proper documentation I have figured out that GGG-Granduncle Laurent Brunhammer (born 1813) married the Marie Anne Schwimmer (born about 1816) whose parents where Antoine Schwimmer (born about 1781) and Marie Anne Schlienger (died about 1829). GGG-Granduncle Sébastien (born 1820) married the other Marie Anne Schwimmer (born about 1820) whose parents were Michel Schwimmer (born about 1787) and Marie Anne Münch (born about 1787).

And yes, GGGG-Grandparents Sébastien and Marguerite (née Ruess) Brunhammer also had 4 daughters, that to date I have been able to find documentation regarding their births. To top it all the three brothers may have had at least 22 offspring. (And AH, you thought there were a great amount of Dohertys…)

And the genealogy research and search for ancestors and descendants contine.

Family connections can be seen on the family tree, the Brunhammer Doherty Family Tree. If you would like access to the tree you will need an invitation from me. You can sign up with Ancestry, and from what I understand, WITHOUT having to take a membership subscription. Feel free to contact me at jsmith58@gmail.com if you would like to receive an invite to the Brunhammer Doherty Family Tree.

If you have any comment, question, thought, idea please feel free to contact me via email at A Genealogy Hunt.

07 August 2017

“Total of 107 marriage licenses were issued by the county clerk’s office during March, records revealed Friday. This compares with 112 last month and 133 for March of 1943.”

And guess what arrived in the mail today?

Marriage License No. 21469, dated March 31st, 1944.

Also included were the Application For Marriage License, dated 31 March 1944 and the Marriage Certificate, recorded 5th April 1944.

Guess what?

The Marriage Certificate for 1st of April 1944 for Myrtle Frances Doherty and Eugene John Brunhammer. The ceremony, in accordance with the laws of the State of New Mexico, was performed at the Post Chapel, Kirkland Field, New Mexico by the Chaplain William J. Bennett. The Witnesses were Mrs. Davis Harris and Sgt. Harold L. Harris.

Family connections can be seen on the family tree, the Brunhammer Doherty Family Tree. If you would like access to the tree you will need an invitation from me. You can sign up with Ancestry, and from what I understand, WITHOUT having to take a membership subscription. Feel free to contact me at jsmith58@gmail.com.

If you have any comment, question, thought, idea please feel free to contact me via email at A Genealogy Hunt.

Sometimes it is possible to follow a wrong lead while researching an ancestry line.

I have been researching Great-Great-Grandaunt Sarah E. Pierce. She was born 14 July 1841 in Maryland. One Sarah E. Pierce I discovered married Samuel Mimm 27 May 1869 in Chester, Pennsylvania. GG-Grandaunt Sarah, the Sarah Mimm died in 1909 in Avondale, Chester, Pennsylvania.

1869 - The Village Record

Her parents were GGG-Grandparents William H. and Sarah P. (née Fuller) Pierce. GG-Grandaunt Sarah E. was one of their 11 children.

Of course, I can follow their line and descendants. The issue is there are a couple of other Sarah E. Pierces in my research who may or may not be one and the same.

The line I am referring to may or may not be correct. Hopefully, someone may be able to provide some verifiable proof.

Family connections can be seen on the family tree, the Brunhammer Doherty Family Tree. If you would like access to the tree you will need an invitation from me. You can sign up with Ancestry, and from what I understand, WITHOUT having to take a membership subscription. Feel free to contact me at jsmith58@gmail.com.

If you have any comment, question, thought, idea please feel free to contact me via email at A Genealogy Hunt.

16 July 2017

According to the Board for Certification of Genealogists – Skill building: Proof Arguments - Very often the process of writing a proof argument will reveal to us weaknesses in evidence and logic where additional research is required. When reasonably exhaustive research, careful analysis, and correlation of evidence lead to a sound genealogical conclusion, a proof argument should be constructed to defend it. (Wikipedia)

2. In a discussion with WQ it was stated “that my family lore was that my great grandmother's surname by birth was Custer - the same great grandmother through which I'm related to the Brunhammers? I still say, speculatively, that Charles Brunhammer used Custer as an alias for whatever reason(s).”

1905 New Jersey State Census

3. In the 1905 New Jersey State Census “Mary Brunhamer and Charles Brunhamer” are listed at 905 Jersey Ave., Gloucester, Camden, New Jersey. Mary and Charles are listed at being born in May 1841 and November 1862, respectively.

5. Also at the same house at 1679 North 56th Street is one “Charles Custer – Boarder – Age:55 – Place of Birth: France”.

6. Both Mary Brunhamer and Charles Custer list on the same 1920 US Census as their “Year of immigration to the United States” as “1876” and their “Year of naturalization” as “1890”.

1922 Certificate of Death - Mary Brunhammer

7. On Mary Brunhammer’s Certificate of Death, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, File No. 109606, dated 11 December 1922, “Charles Custer” is listed as the Informant. His address is included as “245 S 3 St. Glouster, NJ.”

8. Mary Brunhammer’s “Place of Death” is listed as “1679 N. 56th St.” in Philadelphia. This is the same address that she and Charles Custer are boarding at per the 1920 US Federal Census.

Linked 1920 US Census versus 1922 Certificate of Death

9. Included in Great-Great-Grandparents Marie Katz’s and Jacques Brunhammer’s 1867 Marriage Registration is the following paragraph -

“And immediately the new spouses told us that he was born of a child of the male sex registered in the registrars of the Civil State of Soultz (Haut-Rhin) dated the fifteenth of November one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, Under the name and first name of Katz Charles, which they recognize for their son, wanting that the present declaration legitimizes its birth. From all of which we have drawn up the present deed in the presence of 1st Ambroise Roos, factory-mate, aged thirty-six, second, Antoine Doger, founder, aged thirty-nine, third, Rodolphe Gotz, tailor Georges Lux, a shoemaker, who was thirty-one years of age, the four domiciled in Thann, who were neither parents nor allies of the contraitanté, less chosen by the new spouses who had signed with The father of the husband, the mother of the wife and us after reading this act.”

10. In 1876 the Amerique Manifest, both Marie Brunhammer and 6 of her children are included when they arrived at New York; and then moved on to Philadelphia. Charles is listed as the eldest of the children who made the voyage across the Atlantic.

Within all the documents that I have been able to gather both GG-Grandmother Marie (aka Mary) Brunhammer’s and Great-Grand-Uncle Charles Brunhammer’s and/or Custer’s ages correspond closely to the possibility of their given birth years. Is it possible that Great-Grand-Uncle Charles did change his surname for some period?

In the 1905 New Jersey State Census “Charles Brunhamer” is indicated as “M” which stands for “Married”. In the 1920 United State Census for Philadelphia “Charles Custer” is listed as “Div”, standing for “Divorced”.

With these facts and Charles Custer being the "Informant" on Great-Great-Grandmother Mary Brunhammer's Death Certificate, I would tender to say that there is a possibility that Charles Custer must be Charles Brunhammer.

And there are some more documents to search for in order to find to help with the question “Who is Charles Custer?”

These include if they exist:

1. 1910 United States Census showing either Charles Brunhammer or Charles Custer
2. A Marriage Registration for Charles Brunhammer
3. A Divorce decree for Charles Brunhammer or Charles Custer
4. A Death Registration for Charles Brunhammer or Charles Custer

And these documents could have been completed in either of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, or even Delaware.

Oh yeah, I just located the actual registration 1862 Birth Registration in Soultz, France for Charles Katz? Stay tuned for my posting on A Genealogy Hunt.

Katz, Brunhammer, Custer - “Who is Charles Custer?” I wonder if he was ever been acquainted with Ayn Rand?

Family connections can be seen on the family tree, the Brunhammer Doherty Family Tree. If you would like access to the tree you will need an invitation from me. You can sign up with Ancestry, and from what I understand, WITHOUT having to take a membership subscription. Feel free to contact me at jsmith58@gmail.com.

If you have any comment, question, thought, idea please feel free to contact me via email at A Genealogy Hunt.

Translated – “And Marie Katz, without states, aged twenty-eight four months old, domiciled at Thann, born at Soultz (Haut-Rhin) on the nineteenth of May one thousand eight hundred and forty-two, a celestial daughter of the late Louis Katz, stone-cutter, died at Soultz, on the sixth of January one thousand eight hundred and forty-seven, and of the living Françoise Schaffhauser, his widow, aged sixty-three, and living at Thann ... "

GG-Grandmother Marie’s father is entered as “Louis Katz”. Then I have GG-Grandmother Marie’s 1842 Birth Registration from Soultz, Haut-Rhin in Alsace. This reads…

Translated - "There appeared Louis Katz, aged thirty-seven, a stone-cutter, a resident of Jungholtz, who introduced us to a female child born yesterday at one o'clock in the morning, and of Françoise Shaffhauser, aged thirty-seven years, without a state, his wife, and to whom he declared to give the name of Mary ... "

Once again, GG-Grandmother Marie’s father is named as “Louis Katz”.

Now comes the difference. In GG-Grandmother Mary Brunhammer’s, (aka Marie Katz’s) December 11, 1922, Certificate of Death from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania her father is listed as “Martin Katz”. Accordingly, this information was provided by the Informant Charles Custer of Glouster, New Jersey.

Was her Father Louis or was he, Martin?

I then was able to locate an “Acte De Décès” (Death Registration) dated 6 January 1847 for one Louis Katz.

“On the sixth of January one thousand eight hundred and forty-seven, at three o'clock in the evening, of Death of Louis Katz, stonemason, forty-one years old, born in Durlach (Bavaria), residing in this city, son of Frederick and Catherine Klauber, husband of the survivor Françoise Schaffhauser, who died today ... "

There are several items that seem to move the “Yes” pendulum to the fact that GG-Grandmother Marie (née Katz) Brunhammer’s father GGG-Grandfather was named Louis. The number of items on the different documents seem to coincide and appear to repeat the same information over the years.

Well, the question is how did Charles Custer, the Informant to GG-Grandmother Mary Brunhammer’s death relate that her father was “Martin Katz”?

And who was Charles Custer?

I think I know. I think I know logically via some documentary and autosomal DNA proof. Stay tuned for my next write-up on the Brunhammer Katz family.

The family tree is the Brunhammer Doherty Family Tree. If you would like access to the tree you will need an invitation from me. You can sign up with Ancestry, and from what I understand, WITHOUT having to take a membership subscription. Feel free to contact me at jsmith58@gmail.com.

If you have and comment, question, thought, idea please feel free to contact me via email at A Genealogy Hunt.

23 June 2017

Good Day,

Thank you, Peter, for keeping me in mind with your genealogy research. The image you sent me of the page of the document entered into the Grenada, Supreme Court Registers of Records, 1764 – 1931 may have an iota of a clue that we may need into the research and discovery of my GGG-Grandmother Mary Ann (née Doret) Smith.

The document was penned the 18th of August 1788 and entered 14th of November of that same year. The document is in French which means that I will have to transcribe and then translate.

But here’s the hopeful part. One the first page of the document, which begins on page 340 of the Register concerned there is indicated the name of one “Jean Doret”.

And of course, I jumped at the reveal. The lines where the name of Jean Doret first appears are –

29 May 2017

Good Day,

I am spending a good part of my time re-creating the Brunhammer Doherty Family Tree using the Ancestry.com Family Tree program. I have been a strong proponent in the past of not putting genealogical information on any subscription service. I always felt since I began working with genealogy around 2003 that I should be the one control of that information. Let me tell you something, Ancestry.com has come a long way since then.

I am following two specific guidelines and holding fast to them. One is that I will not put any information on the Ancestry.com Family Tree database that is a specific reference to any persons currently living. That is key and an important rule to follow. My second rule is that I will NOT "link" to any online information in any other family tree unless it is properly sourced and cited. This means that if there ain't proof it isn't going in any of my family trees.

I can also add a third and a fourth rule. The third is that I have checked the ability of the ged.com facility in order to download the information that I include on the Ancestry.com tree. The purpose for this is to make sure that I can collect my information and data should I decide to close my Ancestry.com subscription membership. (I have been a constant Ancestry member since the year 2001.

The fourth rule is that I make sure that I read the fine print and make sure that I have chosen the option that does not relinquish control of my historical data to Ancestry.

The family tree is the Brunhammer Doherty Family Tree. If you would like access to the tree you will need an invitation from me. You can sign up with Ancestry, and from what I understand, WITHOUT having to take a membership subscription. Feel free to contact me at jsmith58@gmmail.com.

If you have and comment, question, thought, idea please feel free to contact me via email at A Genealogy Hunt.

I am currently working on three Family Trees: Robertson, Groh and McAteer.

I am searching for the origins of my ggg-grandfather James Smith who passed away in Grenada in 1842. This is my Indenture Research Project. Presently the Records that I am working with are dated between 1799 and 1810.

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